Pastor Dan Eddy
Exodus 3:1-15
Empowered by the Lord to serve
8-22-10
I. Introduction – Meet Moses
Hello….I’m Moses. Pastor Dan wanted to take a week off from preaching and let someone else do it. So he prayed to God for some help and poof…”here I am.”
It’s not like I haven’t come back to the earth before. Remember the Transfiguration with Jesus Christ. But we’ll get to Him in a moment.
First, I know what you’re thinking…”He doesn’t look anything like Charlton Heston.” That man looks too good to be me, and his voice is better than mine. But what are you going to do? So pardon my less than handsome appearance.
Oh, by the way, #2…you voted me the #2 biblical figure. What I’m not good enough to be #1?
Well, anyway this sermon is not about me, it’s about you.
Well actually it’s about me relaying my experiences; my faith in the Lord, to help you with yours.
II. Background of Exodus 3
I see you read the burning bush story from Exodus this morning. Good one. Boy, I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was 80 years at the time. Spent my first 40 years growing up in the Egyptian royalty.
Then I saw how Pharaoh treated my people, the Israelites. I murdered an Egyptian for mistreating, beating one of my own. So I ran far away to avoid being killed by Pharaoh.
I met a man named Jethro. I asked to marry his daughter, had kids, and was a shepherd for my father-in-law for 40 years. Life was good, and easy. I had all I needed…or at least that’s what I thought.
III. Called by God
Then one day I’m way far away from home, getting food and water for the flock. I went up Mount Horeb and bam…God is speaking to me through a fiery blackberry bush that kept burning and burning; the fire wouldn’t go out. Never seen anything like it.
But the scariest part is when the bush started speaking…the Word of God. I trembled for I knew I was a sinner and could never look at the Lord directly without being killed.
But God wasn’t there to condemn me, or kill me. He was there calling me to do something very important. I was to be a shepherd but not one leading sheep. The Lord was calling me to lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egyptian slavery, to freedom, back right there to that same place of the fiery bush. Soon on that mountain my people could finally worship the one and only true God.
From what Pastor Dan tells me you all are living lives like I led. Oh, you may not have been born into royalty, and never murdered an Egyptian, but you lead comfortable lives compared to the rest of the world…and have more wealth than I ever had. You’re raising your families, and working your jobs. Some of you are even retired.
But the Lord is calling you to do something for Him here in this congregation…whether calling you to do more, do something different or just keep on doing what you’re doing but doing it better.
You see this isn’t a non-profit organization or a Country Club. (Take off the sandals) For the ground you are standing on here is holy. Why? Because God’s presence is here in a unique way that isn’t out there, just like it was for me on Mount Horeb almost 3500 years ago.
You don’t need a fiery bush to know the Lord is calling you to serve in Christ’s church. You have your “fiery bush.” (Hold up Bible) It’s called the Bible. Something I didn’t have most of my life. Certainly didn’t have one this big. With all these great utterances from the Lord. It’s from here the Lord is calling you through Christ Jesus.
You say, “What is He calling me to do here in this congregation?” We’ll figure that out in a moment.
IV. The Lord is real, powerful, and He is here for you to help others
Before you can accept a calling or assignment from God, you have to believe the Lord is real; He is powerful, and He is here for you to help others.
First, God showed me how real He was when He saw my people’s misery, heard their cries, and knew their pains. Do you know that was the first time in the Bible God said He feels or identifies with pain?
I know, the Holy Spirit inspired me to write what you know as the first five books of the Bible.
I don’t know if you know this, but Christ was speaking to me in the fiery bush. Not Jesus….Christ, about 1500 years before He was born as the man, Jesus. Remember what Jesus said when He walked the earth in John 8:58: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
The God who you call Lord I know by the Hebrew name Yahweh. Yahweh literally means “He who is” “The One Who is Always Present.” That describes God to a tee.
That’s why God told me to tell the Israelites God’s name is “I am who I am.” In other words the Lord, Yahweh, is saying: “I AM the One Who always is, Who will always be present. I never stop being God.”
That’s why Jesus emphatically said over and over “I AM” to connect who He is to the Lord, Yahweh. That why He said, “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life.” “I AM the Good Shepherd, the only One who laid down my life for you, my sheep, at the Cross.” “I AM the only One who can forgive your sins.” “I AM the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. “I AM the resurrection and the life, if you believe in me, though you die, yet you shall live.” “I AM the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Christ was speaking to me that day; And He is speaking to you right now.
I don’t know if you know this, but my name, Moses, literally means “to draw out”.
If you remember I was drawn out of the Nile River. I was hidden among the reeds to avoid being killed by Pharaoh, who was killing all the Hebrew male babies because our people were becoming too numerous for him.
But when I was drawn out of the water I was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter and was raised in the kingdom. I avoided death.
Your name could be Moses because God in Christ Jesus drew you out of the waters of baptism, avoiding eternal death, and were raised in the kingdom of God’s Church.
B. The Lord is powerful
The Lord is the only God who has the power over life and death. But we know that here (point to head) but do we really believe that here??? (Point to heart.)
So God tested me on that. He called me to go to the most powerful man in the world and demand that he let my people go…what do you think my initial thought was? “Me…I am going to do this.” NO.
No, God was empowering me to do that. The Lord empowered me to turn the staff into a snake. He empowered me to cause water to turn to blood; He empowered me to cause a supernatural darkness to come upon the Egyptians while my people lived in the light for three days. And the Lord empowered me to separate the Red Sea to save my people, and He empowered me to close it in time to defeat Pharaoh’s army.
If the Lord empowered me to do those things; don’t you think He is empowering you to save people from the slavery of their sins? To save people from the misery of this world?
God chose you, to pass over your sins and save you, just like He passed over and save the first born males while Pharaoh and the Egyptians lost his first born makes. When you dine on Christ’s real body and blood…you get something we never received from our Passover bread…total forgiveness and life that never ends.
You see the Lord wasn’t just using me to save my people from a ruthless tyrant; He was empowering me to save the people from themselves. When my people were in Egypt…they weren’t all worshipping the one Lord God. They were putting their trust in the Egyptian fertility gods. My own father-in-law didn’t even worship the one Lord God.
That’s why my people complained when we lived and traveled in the desert. They wanted the comforts they received as slaves in Egypt, not the freedom the Lord gives with His constant presence in our lives.
But I realized over time…I had no real freedom living with my father-in-law and certainly my people had no real freedom living in Egypt.
God was really calling me to liberate my people from themselves and the Lord is calling each of you to liberate your people here in the South Shore area from themselves.
What was the first thing I said when God called me? Do you remember? I said, “Here I am.” I want you to say “Here I am, Lord.”
I want you to say, “Here I am, Lord to do what you are calling me to do.”
And what it that? God is calling you to be more than a Sunday morning worshipper. He is calling to do more than be a Bible student. He is calling you to do more than to pray to him and meditate on His Word, daily. All of these ways is how the Lord empowers you.
He empowers you so you can go into the world and rescue people from the cries God is hearing, the misery the Lord is seeing. He’s concerned with their suffering.
Where is that here in these South Shore Communities? Are families suffering because their children have disabilities? Are people suffering from addictions to drugs and alcohol…are they receiving God’s liberating Word?
How about the unemployed? How can they be helped? A financial planning or jobs seminar. What about people caught in conflict in life? Can you help them here? Is the Lord empowering you to go door to door to meet, to listen, to care, to pray, and invite people to this holy place, this mountain of God?
What about those ignored in the nursing homes? Jesus is hearing their cries, seeing their misery, and knows their suffering. How are you being called to help bring these people God’s Word from this holy place?
Now most of you don’t think you’re qualified or even equipped to do so. I know how you feel. But I also have seen how the Lord empowers people with gifts and talents to do incredible things, and blesses you with joy to do it…if you let him.
You don’t think we felt joy being liberated from Pharaoh. Read my song in Exodus 15 sometime. Hear Aaron’s sister proclaim: “Sing to the Lord for He is highly exalted.”
For 40 years leading people to the Promised Land, I faced many tests along the ways. I didn’t always pass them. Neither will you as you lead people through this desert of life in this congregation to the Promised Land of heaven.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t joy along the way. The joy comes when people are saved; the joy comes from the fellowship of those around you; the joy comes when you love people the world doesn’t care for. The joy comes when the Lord empowers you to do what may seem impossible by worldly standards. Remember Christ Jesus is the cause of all everlasting liberation with the suffering and death He did from the Cross. And the liberation He shows with His rising from the dead.
The worse thing to do when the Lord calls you is to say and do nothing, or offer excuses like you don’t have time.
The Lord is calling you what is your response?
My prayer is that it is “Here I am, Lord”. Amen.